A prayer of David.
17:1 Lord, consider my just cause! 2
Pay attention to my cry for help!
Listen to the prayer
I sincerely offer! 3
17:4 As for the actions of people 4 –
just as you have commanded,
I have not followed in the footsteps of violent men. 5
19:9 The commands to fear the Lord are right 6
and endure forever. 7
The judgments given by the Lord are trustworthy
and absolutely just. 8
35:17 O Lord, how long are you going to just stand there and watch this? 9
Rescue 10 me 11 from their destructive attacks;
guard my life 12 from the young lions!
For the music director; according to the al-tashcheth style; 14 a prayer 15 of David.
58:1 Do you rulers really pronounce just decisions? 16
Do you judge people 17 fairly?
For 19 Solomon.
72:1 O God, grant the king the ability to make just decisions! 20
Grant the king’s son 21 the ability to make fair decisions! 22
98:9 before the Lord!
For he comes to judge the earth!
He judges the world fairly, 23
and the nations in a just manner.
118:19 Open for me the gates of the just king’s temple! 24
I will enter through them and give thanks to the Lord.
1 sn Psalm 17. The psalmist asks God to intervene on his behalf because his life is threatened by dangerous enemies. He appeals to divine justice, for he is certain of his own innocence. Because he is innocent, he expects to encounter God and receive an assuring word.
2 tn Heb “hear,
3 tn Heb “Listen to my prayer, [made] without lips of deceit.”
4 tn Heb “with regard to the deeds of man[kind].”
5 tn Heb “by the word of your lips, I, I have watched the paths of the violent” (i.e., “watched” in the sense of “watched for the purpose of avoiding”).
6 tn Heb “the fear of the
7 tn Heb “[it] stands permanently.”
8 sn Trustworthy and absolutely just. The Lord’s commands accurately reflect God’s moral will for his people and are an expression of his just character.
9 tn Heb “O Lord, how long will you see?”
10 tn Heb “bring back, restore.”
11 tn Or “my life.”
12 tn Heb “my only one.” The psalmist may mean that his life is precious, or that he feels isolated and alone (see Ps 22:20). The verb “guard” is supplied in the translation, because the verb “rescue” is understood by ellipsis (see the previous line).
13 sn Psalm 58. The psalmist calls on God to punish corrupt judges because a vivid display of divine judgment will convince observers that God is the just judge of the world who vindicates the godly.
14 tn Heb “do not destroy.” Perhaps this refers to a particular style of music, a tune title, or a musical instrument. These words also appear in the heading to Pss 57, 59, and 75.
15 tn The precise meaning of the Hebrew word מִכְתָּם (miktam) which also appears in the heading to Pss 16 and 56-57, 59-60 is uncertain. HALOT 582-83 s.v. defines it as “inscription.”
16 tn Heb “Really [in] silence, what is right do you speak?” The Hebrew noun אֵלֶם (’elem, “silence”) makes little, if any, sense in this context. Some feel that this is an indictment of the addressees’ failure to promote justice; they are silent when they should make just decisions. The present translation assumes an emendation to אֵלִם (’elim), which in turn is understood as a defectively written form of אֵילִים (’elim, “rulers,” a metaphorical use of אַיִל, ’ayil, “ram”; see Exod 15:15; Ezek 17:13). The rhetorical question is sarcastic, challenging their claim to be just. Elsewhere the collocation of דָּבַר (davar, “speak”) with צֶדֶק (tsedeq, “what is right”) as object means “to speak the truth” (see Ps 52:3; Isa 45:19). Here it refers specifically to declaring what is right in a legal setting, as the next line indicates.
17 tn Heb “the sons of mankind.” The translation assumes the phrase is the object of the verb “to judge.” Some take it as a vocative, “Do you judge fairly, O sons of mankind?” (Cf. NASB; see Ezek 20:4; 22:2; 23:36.)
18 sn Psalm 72. This royal psalm contains a prayer for the Davidic king (note the imperatival form in v. 1 and the jussive forms in vv. 16-17). It is not entirely clear if vv. 2-15 express a prayer or anticipate a future reign. The translation assumes a blend of petition and vision: (I) opening prayer (v. 1), followed by anticipated results if prayer is answered (vv. 2-7); (II) prayer (v. 8), followed by anticipated results if prayer is answered (vv. 9-14); (III) closing prayer (vv. 15-17). Whether a prayer, vision, or combination of the two, the psalm depicts the king’s universal rule of peace and prosperity. As such it is indirectly messianic, for the ideal it expresses will only be fully realized during the Messiah’s earthly reign. Verses 18-19 are a conclusion for Book 2 of the Psalter (Pss 42-72; cf. Ps 41:13, which contains a similar conclusion for Book 1), while v. 20 appears to be a remnant of an earlier collection of psalms or an earlier edition of the Psalter.
19 tn The preposition could be understood as indicating authorship (“Of Solomon”), but since the psalm is a prayer for a king, it may be that the superscription reflects a tradition that understood this as a prayer for Solomon.
20 tn Heb “O God, your judgments to [the] king give.”
21 sn Grant the king…Grant the king’s son. It is not entirely clear whether v. 1 envisions one individual or two. The phrase “the king’s son” in the second line may simply refer to “the king” of the first line, drawing attention to the fact that he has inherited his dynastic rule. Another option is that v. 1 envisions a co-regency between father and son (a common phenomenon in ancient Israel) or simply expresses a hope for a dynasty that champions justice.
22 tn Heb “and your justice to [the] son of [the] king.”
23 tn The verbal forms in v. 9 probably describe God’s typical, characteristic behavior, though they may depict in dramatic fashion the outworking of divine judgment or anticipate a future judgment of worldwide proportions (“will judge…”).
24 tn Heb “the gates of justice.” The gates of the